All books reviewed here may be obtained from the Free Presbyterian Bookroom.
Wise Counsel, John Newton’s Letters to John Ryland Jr
published by the Banner of Truth Trust, hardback, 429 pages, £16.50.
Anyone familiar with the writings of John Newton (1725-1803) will welcome this collection of his letters to John Ryland Jr, Baptist pastor in Northampton and Bristol. Most of the letters were either previously unpublished or had appeared only in rare nineteenth-century periodicals. The 83 letters span the period from 1771 to 1803, by which time Newton was nearly blind.
The letters have been collected and carefully and lovingly annotated by Dr Grant Gordon from Canada, who has spent many years on the work. Historical footnotes, and connecting notes between the letters, identify the people and incidents referred to, and point towards relevant passages in the various biographies of Newton. The book is a mine of information on Newton and on Ryland and his circle, but it is a pity that there is no bibliography. There is, however, a good index. The only historical point on which the reviewer felt slightly dissatisfied regarded Mrs Newton’s sister and brother-in-law, the Cunninghams, who moved to Scotland. Some information about their religious connection in Scotland would have been welcome.
A number of the earlier letters refer to items in the Gospel Magazine, to which both Newton and Ryland were contributors. This Magazine commenced in 1766 and still appears. Most of the early issues have recently been made available on the Gospel Magazine website. The footnote on pages 78-79 about the Gospel Magazine is not quite accurate. As far as the reviewer can determine, it appeared from 1766 to 1784 (with a slight change of title in 1774) and was in abeyance from 1785 to 1795. It resumed in 1796 and has continued without a break since then. The 1784 crisis was connected with bitter disputes arising from John Wesley’s Arminian Magazine, which had been started in 1778 in direct opposition to the Calvinistic Gospel Magazine.
Interesting as the letters are historically, their main value, however, lies in their spiritual content, and it is here that John Newton excels. They are full of the sanctified common sense for which he is so renowned. Every letter has something useful and edifying to say. One piece of advice which struck the reviewer is to have two heaps, one of “unintelligibles” and another of “incurables” (p 154).
Newton is here borrowing from Cotton Mather and a helpful footnote gives Mather’s counsel in full: “It may not be amiss for you to have two heaps: a heap of Unintelligibles and a heap of Incurables. Every now and then you will meet with something or other that may pretty much distress your thoughts, but the shortest way with vexations will be to throw them into the heap they belong to, and be no more distressed about them. You will meet with some unaccountable and incomprehensible things, particularly in the conduct of many people. Throw them into your heap of Unintelligibles; leave them there. Trouble your mind no further; hope the best or think no more about them. You will meet with some unpersuadable people; no counsel, no reason will do anything upon the obstinates. Throw them into the heap of Incurables. Leave them there. And go on to do, as well as you can, what you have to do. Let not the crooked things that cannot be made straight encumber you.”
Later Newton amends his advice slightly: “As to your trials, I will not, with Dr Mather, advise you to cast them on the heap of Incurables, rather cast them upon the Lord. He can make the crooked straight. When we have done what else we can, submission is our part” (pp 181-2).
The one area in which Newton’s advice is less profitable is ecclesiastical matters. He confesses to a “latitudinarian spirit”: “I profess myself to be of no party, and to love all of every party who love the Lord our saviour in sincerity. If they preach the truth in love, live as they preach, and are wise and watchful to win souls, and to feed the flock, I care not much whether they are called Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Churchmen, Kirkmen, or Methodists. I desire to rejoice in their success, on every side. I believe the zealots of all parties pity or blame me for my latitudinarian spirit, but the moderate and peaceable of all parties show me kindness” (p 371). The Covenanters were martyred for just the sort of things that Newton disregards, but we think that it was they who had the more biblical understanding. The wisdom that is from above is “first pure” and then “peaceable” (Jas 3:17). Christ’s servants are to teach men to “observe all things whatsoever” that Christ has commanded (Mt 28:20).
The book is beautifully produced to the usual Banner of Truth standard and it would make a good present. The only blemish is the excess of footnotes. Historical information is one thing, but definitions of common, or uncommon but obvious words, and identification of well-known texts is another. Page 139, for a typical example, has footnotes defining “counters” as “toy money used in games”; “inquietude” as “restlessness or uneasiness”; and identifying “vanity of vanities” as Ecclesiastes 1:2. In a world of dictionaries, concordances and the internet, this is unnecessary. This trifle aside, we commend Dr Gordon and Banner of Truth and pray the Lord’s blessing on the work.
(Rev) D W B Somerset
Selections from Wise Counsel, John Newton’s Letters to John Ryland Jr
published by the Banner of Truth Trust, paperback, 110 pages, £3.25.
This book contains most of the introductory material in the book recommended above and three of its letters. These letters provide a sample of the content of the larger volume and illustrate the godly wisdom for which their writer was so well known. The selection is produced in the same format as the publishers’ Pocket Puritans series and can therefore be carried around easily in one’s pocket or handbag.
The Duties of Parents
by Jacobus Koelman, published by Reformation Heritage Books, paperback, 173 pages, £9.99 from the F P Bookroom.
Koelman (1632-1695) was a noted minister of his time in the Netherlands, but it may seem that a book, now more than 300 years old, on such a subject has little to teach parents today. In fact, it has much to tell modern parents, because it is firmly based on Scripture and on common sense. For instance, he says that when children do wrong and parents “rebuke their sins”, they are to “point to a number of texts from Holy Scripture and show them how clearly that sin is forbidden”. And, Koelman counsels wisely, “do not let them have their way by screaming, for then they will do it again and again”.
On occasion parents will have to use a degree of discretion in applying Koelman’s directions, and he does frequently give a large amount of detail. But it is interesting to note his warnings against celebrating “days on which unbelief and superstition are being catered to”, including Christmas and Easter: “Reformed people must keep their children away from these so-called holy days”. One final quotation goes to the heart of parents’ responsibilities in bringing up their children: “In all your conduct, be an example in word and deed, both indoors and outdoors, so that from your example your children can learn the sanctity and irreproachability of speech and action that you hope they too will learn in practice. Examples yield more instruction than commands.” Bringing up children is a tremendous responsibility, especially in a godless age such as this. Those who use Koelman’s book prayerfully and wisely should find it a real help in raising their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
This book is one of a series of present-day translations of Dutch writings from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Other titles in the series available from the Bookroom are: Essential Truths in the Heart of a Christian by Wilhelmus Schortinghuis, The Path of True Godliness by Willem Teellinck, The Marks of God’s Children by Jean Taffin.
Dealing with Dawkins
by John Blanchard, published by EP Books, paperback, 95 pages, £2.50.
Richard Dawkins, a retired Oxford professor, has achieved prominence for his energetic promotion of evolution and the militant atheism which he has vehemently and articulately expressed in his best-selling book, The God Delusion. Dr Blanchard has written this little paperback to help those who may be in any degree influenced by Dawkins’ confident assertions, such as: “Religion is no longer a serious candidate in the field of explanation. It is completely superseded by science.” Such bluster is undermined by the admission he makes in another of his writings: “Science has no way to disprove the existence of a supreme being”.
Professor Dawkins has made some outrageous statements about the Bible, but Dr Blanchard quotes another writer who comments accurately that Dawkins and others like him “invariably come up with vulgar caricatures of religious faith that would make a first-year theology student wince”. Professor Dawkins’ writings have no doubt achieved their popularity because their extreme unbelief is welcomed by an age when the enmity of the carnal mind against God has been allowed great scope; they say what people want to hear. Dr Blanchard here provides only a brief answer, but it is a sufficient antidote to writings which have the potential to do much damage to vulnerable souls, as no doubt they have done already (though one would wish that the AV had been used for Scripture quotations).
True Faith
by J van Amstel, translated from Dutch and published in English by Dick Vermeulen, booklet, 93 pages, £5.00 from the F P Bookroom.
As the author, a minister in the Netherlands, notes, everyone believes in something. But he is concerned about “true faith”, the faith through which sinners are accounted righteous before God. This he distinguishes from a temporary, or historical, faith, which is not saving. He does so on the basis of answers from the Heidelberg Catechism, beginning with answer 20. In answer to the question, “Are all men then, as they perished in Adam, saved by Christ?” the Catechism states: “No: only those who are engrafted into Him, and receive all His benefits, by a true faith”.
Having emphasised that the sinner is under obligation to believe, Mr van Amstel goes on to state that the focus of the Christian’s faith is on the promises of God; the whole life of faith depends on them. And it is “the Holy Ghost alone [that] can work this faith in us. We are completely dependent upon the Holy Ghost.”
Sentences often retain a Dutch flavour, but the booklet has a very useful message in an age when, far too often, religious faith is nothing more than an intellectual acceptance of the Bible. May it be used to encourage those who have true faith and to open the eyes of those who are not truly trusting in the one name “given among men whereby we must be saved”!